"Probably the biggest change in the $156 million tower that Toledo Hospital will begin moving into this month involves the smallest patients.
While newborns in the existing intensive care unit are cared for in groups with multiple nurses working together, the babies will have separate patient rooms in the new tower where relatives can stay overnight.
And nurses will be able to monitor babies in each room and call for additional help through wireless voice-activated badges they will wear.
The changes mean premature babies in the 60-bed unit will stay in womb-like settings, with limited noise and light, while families can spend more time with their newborns, hospital officials said yesterday."
I was just interested to hear whether anyone here works in a similar NICU, with private rooms, and what you all think about this set-up from a nursing perspective.
It sounds like it would be wonderful for families, allowing them privacy and the ability to stay overnight. Private rooms seem to be practically the standard for adult and pediatric patients, and it seems like NICU babies and families would appreciate the same thing. On the other hand, from my few experiences observing in NICU settings, I've seen nurses have to literally leap across the room to rouse a baby who's not breathing, and I wonder whether individual rooms could impact patient safety.
From what I have read about private room design, it works best when arranged in PODS.
This makes me feel better! My unit is moving the level II area to private rooms arranged in PODS next month and the level III will take over the rest of the "old" unit.
My hospital is in the process fo building a new building with some private rooms. The thing I dread is that the parents of our babies will most likely see it as an opportunity to move in, I do not want to walk in on them when they are having some "private time" with each other. Some of them cannot control themselves in hte unit and now we are giving them a bed?? We also have the occasional prostitute mom so I can only imagine that scenario. We have had them entertain in the waiting room before.
We also have the occasional prostitute mom so I can only imagine that scenario. We have had them entertain in the waiting room before.
yeesh.... just make sure there are no empty IV "poles" out there.....
Funny unrelated story... we had a rather plump nurse we worked with on nights at my last job that would grab a pole and start dancing when we'd get the giggles at 3am. One night she rolled too close to the ramp to L&D, rolled down the hill, fell off and almost killed herself. Dances were then limited to special occasions.
Our new unit opens June 1. Our current unit has 65 beds- 40 are designated ICU, with 16 step down and 9 transition beds. We currently have pods- 3 ICU pods with 12 beds, but they are divided by a wall with 6 on each side. I like it that way. You get some privacy, but your other patients are right there. The other 4 beds are private but they are in an isolation pod. We hardly have sick kids in there.
Our new unit is an addition. 40 beds total. 20 beds open in June. They are all private rooms. I actually love the new unit, and I think that it will be pretty nice. For now, we will only admit 1500 grams and up. Our sick kids will stay in the old unit.
Our kiddos are pretty sick and can turn on a dime. I wouldn't feel comfortable having the babies out of sight, frankly.
We have a lot of parents who would move right in, too. We'd be tripping all over their stuff to get to the babies.
The other thing to consider is that a lot of parents tend to kind of poke at their kids a lot. No matter how many times you explain that this baby is already in an overstimulated environment (alarms, monitors, vents, etc.) parents sometimes have a hard time understanding. It must be terribly frustrating to be a parent and just want to hold your baby and not be able to and not to stroke them or any of the normal stuff you do without thinking, but it can be awfully hard on this little ones. I do encourage kangaroo care and teaching containment, etc; I love to see parents fly with that .
Our unit is not so great at keeping noise/lights down, but we're working on it.
By the time our babies woud be feeder/growers, they've been back transported, but those babies might well benefit from private rooms and a parent to care for them.
Ya there are definately concerns with the sick ones...I guess it will be a learning curve! The way the unit is set up is really nice though. There are ten beds in a semi-circle around the nursing station. You could see all of them pretty easily. Plus, we have central monitoring and monitors that will pull up your other patient's vitals :)
The hope I guess is that kids sick enough not to be left in a room alone should be 1 to 1 assignments anyway. I know it's kind of a pipe dream some places. In places with good staffing, though, I wonder almost more about the relatively stable feeder who has severe spells though. That kid could be 3 or 4 to 1, so you might have to be running from a bit away (e.g. bathing a patient down the hall). People who work with private rooms say they love them after the adjustment, so we'll just have to see!
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texas2007, BSN, RN
281 Posts
This makes me feel better! My unit is moving the level II area to private rooms arranged in PODS next month and the level III will take over the rest of the "old" unit.